Posts Tagged ‘Theatre’

160 performances of Macbeth beginning in Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2011 through England, back up to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, ended in Germany (Neuss) Sunday June 10th 2012!

And what a day it was! With a matinée and eve performance, Icarus Theatre Collective’s Macbeth drew to a mammoth close with at least 6 or 7 curtain calls and a stampede resonating the entire SOLD OUT Globe Theatre in Neuss!

Lady Macbeth, played by Sophie Brooke gained many cheers and applause and was so richly deserved. Every cast member from Macbeth to the Porter, gained a great round of applause during the many curtain calls.

The set was then stripped down, packed in our touring van and our stage blood was mopped from the stage floor, stairs and walls!

All of the cast and Icarus production staff were left thinking by the end of the evening – is this REALLY it??

Drinks at the theatre bar and food for a truly exhausted cast followed and in the wee small hours of the morning all began to head back to the hotel.

The next day, the Icarus cast and production staff gathered for a meal before the cast headed to the airport to catch their flight back to London and the tour van went back via ferry to England.

Icarus Theatre Collective felt truly honoured to end The Macbeth Tour at The Shakespeare Festival in Globe Neuss, Germany and wish to thank all the festival staff and organisers for their great hospitality and hard work. Such a wonderful festival, we wish success and fun times for the rest of the festival!

Best Anecdote from The Shakespeare Festival… Ronin, our fight director gave an introduction on Friday ‘s performance of Macbeth at The Globe Neuss (one was held every performance of the festival) and during the interval an audience member approached him, having recognised him from the introduction talk, mentioning that he was loving the show so far but didn’t think that the throne was positioned in the best place on stage…Ronin, our quick-witted fight director said…’Don’t worry I’ll fix that for you’… After the interval the throne of course had moved…Now, for those of you that are not familiar with the show, the throne purposely moves after the interval anyway…but we liked to think that we made one audience member very, very delighted that day!

Icarus Theatre Collective will return with Romeo & Juliet in September 2012 but until then a HUGE thanks to all involved in The Macbeth Tour!

And to The Macbeth cast from August 2011-June 2012 (Joel Gorf, Sophie Brooke, Matthew Bloxham, Richard Hay, Costa Chard, Richard Maxted, Emma Carter, John Eastman) we wish you well in your future roles! And to Kaiden Dubois (Malcolm and soon… Romeo) and Zachary Holton we look forward to Romeo & Juliet rehearsals and the Romeo & Juliet Tour 2012!

What another amazing day at The Globe Theatre in Neuss, Germany! Almost approaching our final shows as the cast performed matinee and evening performances to a delighted and enthusiastic audience! Again, playing to a SOLD OUT Globe Theatre…

The curtain calls again surprised and delighted all with no less than 8 curtain calls including spontaneous applause on THREE occasions during the matinee show and a stampede of applause on the 1st curtain call!

After the matinee performance, cast, director, fight director and production coordinator mingled with a lucky group from the audience who loved the show and were very eager for Icarus Theatre Collective to return to The Globe in Neuss next year….fingers crossed!!

And then the evening performance quickly approached again to a delighted audience and with so many curtain calls and the exhaustion from the day, the cast retired to the bar where they were greeted by a round of applause from a group of audience members who were enjoying a drink after the show!

With people coming up to the Artists Table to ask for autographs and offer congratulations, all were excited to perform tomorrow, our final day performing Macbeth at The Shakespeare Festival in Globe Neuss, Germany!

A beautiful day, with a clear sky and the sun shining began at The Globe Neuss, with finishing touches to set, props and lighting all in preparation for opening night!

Excitement is building for the festival as final preparations to the bar and decorations in the outside space around The Globe Neuss are being made.

Two film crews visited us during the day to catch a glimpse of the rehearsals and fight calls, a real media buzz is starting to build…

An hour before the show the cast are preparing, doing their most important vocal warm-ups, while as Social Media Manager I got to check out the buzz of the festival, see the crowds arrive and capture what was a great build up to the show.

Across from the Globe Neuss Theatre itself is an event building, which houses the box office, bar, bookshop and facilities, here the crowds gathered in spectacular surrounding decorated lavishly with everything connected the Shakespearean world – with of course a lavish theatre touch!

Outside the venue, tall flags advertised the festival, picnic benches were dotted around and a small stage was placed where our Director was interviewed prior to the show…

With many audience members clutching onto their Macbeth programmes we wondered whether we’ll have enough by the end of the week!

The bell rang and everyone spilled into the theatre and the show began….and what a show this was, the acoustics in the building were amazing, the actors drawing in the audience into the world of Macbeth….

The final scene ended and the audience applauded, cheered and clapped so much we had 6 curtain calls for our opening night! With many people coming up to the director offering congratulations there was certainly a sense of relief that the hard work all had put in at Icarus was well deserved.

With cast & creative enjoying a drink after the show, we all looked forward to a great week ahead and onto the next show!

Icarus cast, creative & set arrived in preparation on Tuesday 5th June to Germany in the ever so lovely town of Neuss. The next day, Wednesday 6th June was our tech day and the whole company was thrilled by the space, the surroundings and the ever so helpful technicians and staff at The Shakespeare Festival 2012!

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite so kind and most of the day we received several downpours of rain but spirits were not dampened as the director and stage manager arranged the blocking, lights and sound for this amazing venue!

With such a unique space as The Globe we’ve used the space like never before in our production of Macbeth and look forward to opening night (SOLD OUT!) Thursday 7th June 2012!